1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic musical instrument which has a so-called registration function, i.e. a function of storing a panel setting state into a memory and reading out the panel setting state therefrom to change the panel setting state.
2. Prior Art
There have been conventionally known electronic musical instruments which have a panel memory for storing a set of control information for controlling the current operation of the electronic musical instrument, i.e. present panel setting (setting of a plurality of switches provided on the surface of an operation panel) for tone color, volume, effects, style, tempo, etc., and a registration memory (preset memory) for storing a plurality of sets of control information, and wherein one set of control information is read out from the registration memory to rewrite contents of the panel setting data stored in the panel memory by the data read out from the registration memory (registration function), to thereby enable controlling the electronic musical instrument according to the user's choice.
These conventional electronic musical instruments include one, for example, proposed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-2394, which can permit the user to instruct to inhibit (freeze) rewriting part of the panel setting data (e.g. tone color information) stored in the panel memory by panel setting data read out from the registration memory in rewriting the panel memory by using the registration function.
According to the conventional musical instrument, however, rewrite-inhibition can be applied only to a predetermined part of the panel setting data. As a result, the user cannot freely select desired panel setting data to inhibit rewriting thereof. Therefore, the user can find very limited occasions to use the rewrite-inhibition function (freeze function).